. . . imaginative and bursting with jazz virtues . . . [the title piece is played] with all the majesty that could be provided by an orchestra . . . It's all appealing . . . the greatest pleasure of the two-disc set is on the second disc in which Corea's quintet were recorded by the engineer and producer without telling anyone they were being recorded . . . It's there you'll hear the likes of Kenny Dorham's "Blue Bossa" and "Just Friends." It's also there that you'll have the huge pleasure of hearing Corea at the piano solo in a series of pieces called "Solo Continuum" . . .

Record Review /
Jeff Simon,
Buffalo News / 12. February 2012

. . . the overall variety of colour and attack, and the quality of playing are compelling . . . intriguing . . .

. . . piano legend Chick Corea remains one of the most eclectic and prolific artists in jazz . . . the music throughout is energetic and exciting, with Corea's terrific quintet . . . one of the best pairings of jazz ensembles and orchestra you're likely to hear, mostly because the handpicked classical players have a genuine feel for jazz and the arrangements achieve a real synergy between the two musical worlds.

Record Review /
Joel Roberts,
New York City Jazz Record / 01. October 2012

Chick Corea - The Continents

On this specially priced 2-CD release, piano legend Chick Corea showcases both his composer and instrumentalist sides in his vision of world, jazz, Latin, and classical music – converging into a new, whole work of startling beauty. It’s the sound of surprise

Disc One: The Continents – composed of six sections depicting Africa, the Americas, Antarctica, Asia, Australia, and Europe – is a globally inspired concerto for jazz quintet and chamber orchestra

Conducted by Steven Mercurio and performed with an all-star New York orchestra, including members of the Harlem Quartet and Imani Winds, among others

Parallel to The Continents, we are re-releasing On Two Pianos (CD 00289 479 0011), Chick Corea’s only other recording on the Yellow Label: a great live concert given by the jazz giant with Nicolaus Economou in 1982

Insights

THE CONTINENTS - Concerto for Jazz Quintet and Chamber Orchestra

Making music for a combination of orchestral musicians and jazz musicians has endless possibilities. Appreciation for the abilities each has for the other makes for an atmosphere charged with high interest, creative communication and new ideas. This was the setting for the composing and recording of The Continents – for me, a dream come true. The process of making the recording was magical. The morale of the musicians plus the recording team was so high that we finished recording the six movements of the concerto a day and a half under schedule. After saying goodbyes to the orchestra musicians, the Quintet had an impromptu jam just for fun. Of course, the recorder was on. I then had the next evening to record some piano solo bits that I thought would fit the cadenza sections of the concerto. After recording those, I felt there was still something incomplete about The Continents recording. So I decided to try to get to what it was by improvising on the piano by myself – I felt that the basic material was somehow lacking – something was missing.

That last evening, while I was waiting for Bernie to set things up and turn on the recorder, I played the piano, starting my exploration to find what was missing. As you will hear, after playing several little pieces, I asked Bernie if he was ready to record – to which Bernie answered that he had been recording all the time but didn’t want to interrupt me. So we continued recording from there until I felt I was finished. After listening to the Quintet’s jam and the piano soliloquies, I now feel that the recording of The Continents is complete (at least for the moment). The music may have its technical flaws, as perfection was never the goal – but I’m pleased that the music was made in the Spirit Of Play, which was the initial intent of the composition after being invited to write a “piano concerto in the spirit of Mozart” by the Wiener Mozartjahr.